School's Back

So, my goal thus far (now that the recipe is essentially fleshed out) has been to simply maintain the DIYS diet. My weight has continued to steadily drop and my energy level is surprisingly good. My dogs are still keeping me up at night but, were that not the case, I'm betting that my sleep level would be great as well.

School has started up again and I've discovered that DIYS is both a good and bad thing for me there. I no longer have to contend with deciding which horrible fast food place to subject myself to but I do have to carry around an insulated lunch bag for my DIYS. I've decided to deal with the extra bag since I'm enjoying my weight loss.

At the beginning of this week, I officially added physical exercise to my repertoire and can assure you that DIYS is sufficient for an active lifestyle. Perhaps my formula isn't appropriate for someone interested in strength or marathon training but for a 2-3 times per week cardio event (like Zumba), this should work nicely. I've also been getting a lot more physical activity just by walking across campus constantly, so I'm figuring that (and the heat) into how well DIYS is working.

I've dropped my Zumba class though. I attended class on Tuesday and discovered that it wasn't just a place to workout but included papers and research and students teaching choreography to the class. No thanks. I need cardio, not extra research papers. So now I have an hour of lap swim between classes! Full cardio, full body, and low impact! Woo! It's what I really wanted to do instead of Zumba but I misread the pool schedule and thought I couldn't swim until after my classes; now I get to do it in between! Yay!

Here are the results from the past week:

I've consistently lost weight every day this week despite the fact that I've added to my protein intake by adding browned lean ground turkey meat (no spices). I also had dinner with a friend last night and, because I had less than a full pitcher of Soylent that day, I had a piece of swordfish and some plain asparagus. I find this interesting because it means that my caloric consumption is greater.

Weight during pre-DIYS tests (8/3): 275.6
Weight as of 8/29: 260.2
15.4 pounds in 26 days = .59 pounds per day
Blood glucose steady between 90-98 each morning
Resting BP and heart rate consistently healthy
I have more energy now than I've had for a very long time- despite my lack of sleep!

I'm going to assume that I can do better in the next 4 months because I will not only be increasing how I burn calories but I am also no longer tinkering with my recipe or cheating with foods that don't treat my body right.

Cheat? Who, me? Prove it!

Ha! Two weeks down, my health is fine, my energy is actually pretty darn good, and I'm TOTALLY NOT DEAD, YOU GUYS.

Success, I'd say.

Also, we had a bunch of friends over for a game day at my place and we stocked up on healthy stuff (not just because of our Soylent lifestyle but also because our friends are broccoli-and-plain-chicken-only health nuts) and it was a resounding success.

I cheated and it was totally okay. Naan bread (flatbread), hummus, some carrots, broccoli, and some sugar-free energy drinks. I didn't eat as much as I thought I might (I feared that I'd gorge as soon as that naan bread hit my mouth) but my stomach must have shrank because I was not only not really used to using my jaws for eating anymore but I got full from real food VERY FAST.

And when I weighed myself the next morning, I'd still lost weight. XD

So, 14 days in and I'm down 9 pounds (a very weird 9 pounds, mind you) and my BP is better, my blood glucose is holding at a steady 90-95 range, and I feel very very good. My hair never went funky, my skin isn't sallow, my nails aren't thinning (I hope!) and I have yet to faint. Woot!

All of this is fantastic news considering that immediately after my 3-week point, I start my Zumba class.

I might die. I might want to die. We'll see.

Schmoylent versus DIYS

Current Recipe

I'm one week in and here's the recipe that has resulted out of a lot of tinkering. When I make this, I put the Pre-cooked Masa (PAN) in my food blender first to further chop the bits down (to reduce grit) and when I add water, I boil it in my kettle and add about a cup to my pitcher before adding my dry ingredients. Then I stir the nonsense out of it, add more boiling water gradually, and use my immersion blender until my hand nearly falls off. Then I let it sit overnight in my fridge and, after a lot of vigorous shaking, it gets poured into my glass travel bottles and kept chilled until it is drunk.

The Xanthan gum does wonders for texture. I tried 1/2 tsp (as that is the suggested serving size) for my whole 2L pitcher of mix and that was, rather shockingly, too much. It's thick. Seriously think, guys. Like a milkshake that I wanted to attempt to chew. I had issues pouring it. 1/4 tsp (about 1g) is PLENTY. I legitimately do not have to shake it after it's put into the smaller travel bottles- I simply do so out of habit and of residual fear from my days of chocolate ocean sand mix. 

Also, I added the peanut butter powder to taste (which came out to about 22g but I may lower it later) and I reduced the cocoa powder so that I could at least taste the peanut butter powder a bit. Now it's lovely and I enjoy drinking it. Really. It's lovely. My friends tried it and couldn't seem to get past the little bits of grit left over but they SERIOUSLY have no idea how gritty it used to be and simply do not appreciate my efforts. Silly heathens. 

My numbers are going down and I've bounced back from the tiredness that resulted from my calorie drop. I continue to nibble on things like carrots and cucumbers and tomatoes (and I split a granola bar with my coworker yesterday and it was heavenly) so I'm not gripped by my need to chew like I was before but I feel like I could be doing better at sticking to just my DIYS. 

Also, I did a successful social outing with friends this past weekend! It was just bowling at a posh alley with some, admittedly, great smelling food and extensive drinks but I survived! I tanked a 12oz bottle on the way there and sipped on another bottle during the game and I felt no need to get dinner with my group. The urge to order something was there out of habit (not hunger) so my iced tea went a long, long way for me that night. I did, on the other hand, have to avoid the bar area where the food was served because I actually found myself drooling a little bit. Grease. Smells. Wonderful. Now. I don't want to put it in my mouth but it really does smell amazing. 

So! On to the business of the day!

Shelby (my husband) ordered some People Fuel Plus (a variant of Schmoylent by Axcho) about a week/week and a half ago and I wanted to give you a better update since it arrived last night and we've mixed some up.

We received two boxes of 15 bags each and they very helpfully included instructions for mixing. My husband's pitchers and bottles arrive later today so we took this as a good omen and I graciously loaned him the use of my extra pitcher until his arrives.

Taking a closer look at the mix, his mix looked REALLY different than mine. You might notice the speckles on his bag- those turned out to be Chia seeds. Whole seeds. I am interested to see him down those.

This mix reeked pleasantly of cinnamon and it really caught my attention coming out of the box. I checked out the ingredients again and noticed that, while most of the main nutrients are identical to what I put in my recipe, the Axcho version has a few alterations that I will be looking into- most notably, the multivitamin powder. I have bolded the ingredients that are not exactly in my DIYS mix.

Included in the People Fuel Plus (PFP) mix:
Masa Harina (Corn), Whey Protein Isolate (Milk), Chia Seeds, Psyllium Husk Powder, Potassium Citrate, Iodized Salt, Calcium Citrate, Choline Bitartrate, Multivitamin Powder, Saigon Cinnamon, Stevia Powder, Xanthan Gum

Notice that there are a lot of equivalencies here. Psyllium Husk Powder instead of rice flour. Saigon cinnamon instead of cocoa or peanut butter for flavoring. Stevia powder instead of splenda blends. I use an actual multivitamin instead of powder but I went ahead and highlighted that as a difference as well. The recipes are clearly similar so there is a lot of hope for people who don't like certain recipes but want to tinker with their own tastes in mind. The description for this mix says "Tastes like Cheerios or corn tortillas" and, while that does not appeal to me as a desirable everyday taste, my husband was ecstatic. He made sure to mention that he would take a savory flavor over a sweet flavor any day of the week.

Don't worry. He ate his words later.

Here goes the first blend...

And then it turned into grits. 

The cinnamon smell went away as soon as we started to mix the stuff up with the spoon and it stayed away. After blending, the mix smelled like corn (that's the Masa/PAN for you!) and it held the consistency of very dense grits. The recommended 6 cups of water topped the pitcher after we finished and it stayed ridiculously thick; I'd love to know how much Xanthan gum they used in this to get it that seriously thick. 

The picture you see above during the mixing process is exactly how thick it was this morning after sitting all night. Shelby "poured" a cup for breakfast and had to break out a spoon to try to eat it. He then put it back into the fridge and vowed to tinker with it tonight. It's probably edible but only just. 

I didn't have the courage to try it. I'll keep you posted.

The Sandman

Guys. I fixed my grit problem. 

Not only does adding peanut butter work (and a small amount too!) but so does just adding the peanut butter powder. And, to make things even better, making the mix with less water totally helps. Now it's thick like a milkshake. I love it. I drank all my DIYS yesterday with no issue. 

But I'm crazy tired. No caffeine makes for a very dull and very lethargic day. Cutting calories means I'm still adjusting but I also stopped drinking coffee and redbull in one go and my body feels like it stops working by 3pm. I added a sugar-free redbull yesterday around lunchtime (which helped) and I poured some coffee into my mix bottle this morning after I'd drank half of it and that worked as well. We'll see how long it takes before I pick back up.

In the meantime, though, I have been going to bed by 9pm. I essentially faceplant into my pillow well before my husband and dogs are ready to turn in and it's starting to get on my nerves. Yeah, I don't have homework right now, so this is the best time for me to be sleepy, but duuuuuuuuuude... I have stuff to do! I have a bowling night tomorrow that I'm going to snore through! Jeesh. I'll adjust but I'm pretty down on power right now and thought I'd share.

Also, my tests are coming back better- BP is down, glucose is down, specific gravity is down, and my weight is a bit down as well. Yay!

Things not DIYS that I've eaten: plain rice cakes, a small 2-ounce container of fresh guacamole, a pickle, and an Eggo (still frozen). I told you, I'm weak. But it's getting easier to resist- especially when I'm staying busy. 

I'll post an update recipe when I recreate the PB mix and I'll also link to my tracked numbers thus far. 

Minor alterations

Here we have a newly altered mix. 

On the left, you will notice my cheap-but-useful food blender. It was $9 at Big Lots and came in crazy useful today. I measured out my pre-cooked MASA/PAN (corn flour) and poured it into this bad boy first and blended the nonsense out of it. Then I measured out my minerals and blended those as well (for good measure) before adding all that into my pitcher.

To further produce a more palatable beverage, I reduced my cocoa powder by half (22g instead of 44g) and added two tablespoons (180 calories) of the only peanut butter I could find. It isn't the healthiest of peanut butters but that will be resolved when the peanut butter powder I ordered arrives tomorrow. For now, I just wanted to know if the taste could be what I wanted it to be. You can certainly see how light the mix is now in the photo.

Lastly, I severely reduced the amount of water in my pitcher. I used the same technique of adding water in small amounts while using my immersion blender (still the best tactic) but I stopped adding water at about the 3/5th point. I'm interested to see if a thicker mix will reduce how much I notice the grit- this was one of the suggestions on the Reddit post about DIY Soylent sandiness. If the thickness turns out to really make a difference, the Xantham Gum will help thicken the mix.

So far, the taste is nice (the chocolate isn't as overpowering) and the mix seems to be blending a lot better. The bits of particles on the sides of the container after a good shake aren't as large as they were before.

Also, I noticed today that drinking my mix out of a straw helped with the grit issue. By constantly stirring and not just drinking the liquid-only portion sitting at the top of the bottle, I spread out how much grit was in each sip. I was able to go through three bottles while at work without too much issue.

Something I haven't mentioned yet: gastronomic status. Yeah, my pee is yellow. It's clearly from one (or both) of the pills I take in the morning since it goes away by the evening. And yesterday (my first day), I had a bit of a rumbley tummy and some mild gas. Nothing that a gas-x couldn't resolve and nothing that prevented me from being around people.

I still have some of my two original bottles left to put away but I'll make sure to give you another update when I drink up my 1.1 (naughty pb) version!

Unforeseen Complications

I timed my DIYS start poorly. I brought enough DIYS with me yesterday to stand me through my workday but not enough to get my through my math exam last night and I came out of it ravenous.

Unfortunately, I also became aware of another issue- I had the urge to physically chew on something and this urge got stronger throughout the day. At some point, I mentioned the desire to rip at something with my teeth to a friend and she seemed mildly alarmed (and justifiably so). I attempted to stem this urge with gum but the relief was temporary. By 8pm, this urge became so overwhelming that my arrival home involved me busting through my front door and barreling to my fridge and devouring a small amount of chicken casserole right then and there. I didn't even really want the taste- just the pleasure of chewing on something. So, I clearly have a chewing addiction that I need to break; this explains a lot about why I previously found myself eating when I wasn't hungry. When I weighed myself this morning, I had already dropped a bit, so my one brief encounter with my fridge didn't do that much harm.

Solution time! I had planned some loopholes into my DIYS diet in case of emergency and I've expanded those loopholes accordingly:

• Food from my garden is okay. I grow tomatoes, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and, someday, my grapevines will mature. 
• I will be adding raw carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and cucumbers to my garden ASAP and those items will be store-bought until further notice in order to aid with resolving my chewing needs. Fresh/raw vegetables are back on the table for me. 
• A light dinner is acceptable once a week. Twice a week is fine if said dinner is a salad. 
• I will continue my weekly Graze box of healthy snacks. They are $6 and I have been ordering their calorie-counter snack box for a few months now and they're GREAT. If you want to see what they are, go to the Graze site. If you want to try one, you can use my code GWEND45ME to get your first box free. This isn't a plug, per se... I just really like my boxes and many of my friends love getting them as well.

Also, I did not calculate caffeine into my diet and between the sudden lack of coffee and the sharp drop in calories, I got super dizzy around 2pm yesterday. The most popular resolution for Soylent-related dizziness is water and I have therefore been downing some in addition to my jugs of brown. If you are planning to try Soylent, plan on that as well. I also had to take some ibuprofen for my caffeine-withdrawal headache. This was, as you might guess, not ideal before taking an exam.

Since pure caffeine in controlled amounts is good for improving your metabolism, I have considered getting some caffeine tablets, crushing them, and adding them to my Soylent mix. I ran almost purely on coffee and Redbull before Soylent so I feel like this wouldn't be that drastic. Bear in mind, the tablets I'm talking about have about the equivalent of one cup of coffee per tab and I'm certainly not planning on dumping a whole box in. Maybe just two- and those will be spread across my whole day's amount of nutrition.

I will expound on this in a later post: I've ordered some powdered peanut butter and some Xanthan Gum so assist in improving my recipe. Peanut butter is for protein and taste (I really wanted to taste the PB in my whey mix!) and for texture; this reddit link goes over ways to reduce the gritty texture in DIY Soylent and not only is Xanthan Gum on there, but the Schmoylent folk making the Glenda Fuel mix seem to be using it in most of their mixes as well!

Side Note(s)

My husband, inspired by my ingredient flurry last eve, has purchased Schmoylent's People Fuel Plus.

I, inspired by the grit in the bottom of my cup, bought a one-day bag of Schmoylent's Glenda Fuel. This is purely so I can test out the difference in ingredients. The Glenda Fuel is even lower in calorires (1200!!), low in carbs, and lactose-free. Looking at the ingredients, I would only need to swap out a few items to try this recipe. So, instead of going on another buying craze, I'll try the Glenda when it gets here and make adjustments accordingly.